A/N: So while working on this chapter I've gone back through and corrected some inconsistencies and mistakes which cropped up thanks to the massive hiatus! I feel happier now. So onwards...I hope you enjoy this chapter and, for once, I think Rosalie is pretty nice. I thought she deserved a break :) It's nice to see traffic coming my way but even better would be a review or two so if you feel the urge I'd love to hear from you! EQ x
I'd left the apartment before Jake had woken and headed straight for Yorkie's, the street corner diner where Rose worked and where I was always guaranteed free coffee, which I sorely needed this morning.
"Another break already Hale?" Yorkie himself yelled from behind the counter. A portly, cheerful guy with more hair on his arms than on his head and a perpetually filthy apron, Yorkie was the perfect employer for Rose who was a terrible waitress, not to mention lazy. He seemed only to keep her around because she kept the male customers coming back for more singed toast and rubbery eggs.
"Sorry Yorkie, I'll get back to serving all these customers shall I?" she scoffed, indicating the empty booths and stools.
He flicked a dishcloth in our general direction and turned back to his model train catalogue.
"I just had a bit of a weird day yesterday," I explained, "work was pretty crazy and I had an argument with Jake."
"You mean Jake had an argument with you?" She hit the nail on the head as usual.
"Yeah, something like that."
"I just don't get why you're with him Bel, he's a dog."
"That's harsh," not that I wasn't used to her sneering indictments on my boyfriend but I did wish Rose would be a bit less vocal in her dislike of him. Likewise I wished he was more generous towards her, it'd sure make my life a hell of a lot easier.
"Really? What was it this time? Some guy said 'hi'? You didn't check in at ten minute intervals? Oh no, don't tell me, you forgot to give him an hourly update on how amazing he is!"
In an act of unusually professional diligence Rose refilled my mug with another shot of Yorkie's famously bitter coffee. At least, it was famous among the diner's handful of regulars.
"I was really late back from work. We were supposed to go for dinner."
"He was going to take you out for dinner?" She raised her eyebrows in surprise, "like out out?"
I was really starting to wish I hadn't mentioned it.
"To Billy's."
She roared with laughter, "a romantic evening out at eating meatloaf with his Dad? What more could a woman ask for?!"
I didn't dignify her with an answer. I knew Jake had a lot of faults, not least his short temper and overprotectiveness but he loved me and I loved him. Or at least I had loved him, back when he was fun and carefree and he supported my career. Back before I became independent and didn't need him anymore.
When we first met I was new to Baltimore. I didn't really know anyone and still found the experience of living in a city so far from home overwhelming, so meeting Jake was a blessing. At the time I drove a rusty old truck - fine in the back of beyond out on the Olympic peninsula but totally impractical for the city - and he came to my rescue on several occasions, charging me much less than I knew he was supposed to for fixing leaks and re-attaching things. Eventually the truck had to go but Jake and I carried on seeing each other, he helped me to adjust to city life and, more importantly, taught me how to use the public transport system. We'd become best friends and although I knew he wanted more I was focused on my studies and reluctant to get involved in anything that would take me away from that.
As time went on Jake and I spent more and more time together and eased into a relationship. Or, to be more accurate, we added sex to the relationship we already had. It was great for a while, we moved into a little apartment where he cooked because I couldn't and I cleaned because he wouldn't. In the mornings he drove me to the Volterra Pharm. offices where I had begun my final year of training, and he picked me up at the end of the day once he was done at his job. Graduate training completed, I went straight into a well-paid position at Volterra but as the hours got longer to allow for my continued study while fulfilling my contract Jake got more difficult to live with.
It didn't help when, four years into our relationship, he asked me to marry him. He knew that I didn't really believe in marriage - the typical product of divorced parents, I just couldn't see the point - and he said he understood why I had to say no. He seemed to take it in his stride but then he asked again and again...and again. Over the course of two years he'd asked me a total of seven times. It was as though he believed that if he asked enough times he'd trip me up or wear me down. Whatever it was that made him persist it only made me more determined that I didn't want marriage and, the more we spoke about it, more convinced that we didn't want the same future.
"I just don't understand Bella. Why are you still with him?" it was only when Rose handed me a crumpled napkin that I realised that I was crying.
"You know why, I can't just leave him after what he did for me."
"You can't just stay with somebody because you feel indebted to them. You deserve better Bella."
I scrubbed the napkin over my face, "I need to get to work."
"Come over tonight then? We can open a bottle of wine, throw scorn upon the Kardashians…"
"I can't tonight."
"Why not?"
I knew what she was getting at and she was right, I didn't want to rock the boat with Jake, "I just can't ok Rose? I'll see you later."
Yorkie lifted his head briefly and gave me a nod goodbye as I rushed out, ignoring Rose's glare burning into the back of my head.
**********************************************************************************************************
"So what is it you're looking for? A big hole?"
"More likely a secret microchip. Seriously though, nothing in particular. We just want to have a good look around. Ready?"
Edward gave me a thumbs up from the table where he lay, waiting for me turn on the MRI scanner.
I fired the machine up from my seat at the computer, watching from behind glass as the scanner began to slowly rotate around his head, roaring and screeching, taking images from every angle in brightly coloured 3D. I didn't envy Edward having his head in the noisy metal cocoon for so long but Aro was insistent that I cover every possible angle and with my limited experiences and lack of qualifications when it came to using the MRI scanner I was taking extra care to ensure everything was done so we wouldn't have to repeat the process unnecessarily.
Just as I was taking some final slices there was a rap on the door. I froze. Nobody had booked the room out - both Aro and I had made sure of that.
Unfortunately there was no possibility of ignoring the visitor who I knew could see me through the porthole window of the locked steel door so instead I held a 'just a moment' finger up without turning, hoping that whoever it might be wouldn't recognise me and would disappear. But as the machine wound down, slowing to an eventual stop the knock came again. I hit the button that would allow me to speak to Edward.
"Stay where you are, I'll be back in just a minute."
I turned to see Victoria Sutherland glaring through at me with a frown on her pale, freckled face. Damnit. She was exactly who I was expecting to and hoping not to see. As the Deputy Head of Radiography - second only to Caius who refused to relinquish the title despite having exactly nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the department - nobody knew better than she that there was no reason whatsoever for me to be in her room messing about with her equipment. Not to mention the fact that Victoria Sutherland was not, in any way shape or form, a fan of mine.
Rather than allowing her entry I unlocked the door and slipped through the narrowest crack I could, keeping a tight hold on the handle behind me.
"Hi Victoria, how can I help you?" I asked brightly.
"I was about to ask you that."
Anybody will tell you that redheads are supposed to have fiery tempers but Victoria, with her burning mass of auburn curls was the iciest person I'd had the displeasure of knowing.
"Do you need the room? I'm just done if you don't mind coming back in a moment," it was worth a try.
She leant past me to push at the door and I had a split second to make a decision on what to do - allow her through, hope she didn't ask any more questions and risk her seeing Edward and, much worse, the scans or block her and deal with the consequences of her anger.
I clicked the door shut, "I'm sorry Victoria, I'm just running a very quick errand for Aro so I'm afraid you'll have to come back in...hmm," I faked looking at my watch, "say ten minutes?"
She raised a suspicious eyebrow, "I'll be back in exactly ten minutes and in the meantime I'll be placing a call to Aro."
Victoria turned to leave, her hair swinging out behind her dramatically, "some people must need reminding that this is my department."
Before she'd even finished her sentence I was back inside the control booth of the MRI room, clicking the lock firmly into place setting everything to backup onto the hard drive Aro had provided me with.
"You can come out of there now," I announced over the microphone.
Edward wasted no time in scooching himself off of the table, ruffling his hair back into the artful mess he had arrived with.
"That wasn't the most comfortable thing ever," he complained, entering the control room and peering over my shoulder.
My breath caught at his proximity. He smelled ridiculously good and his breath on the back of my neck brought me out in goosebumps.
"So that's my brain huh?"
"Yep," I just about managed to get out in my flustered state.
He moved away and it was then that I realised I'd been holding my breath.
As the download finished I picked up a pile of print-offs and shoved them haphazardly into my bag. Crossing my fingers and hoping that the transfer had worked I wiped the data from the main computer, closed everything down and with a quick glance at the clock hurried Edward towards the exit.
"Hang on," I whispered, peeking out into the corridor. Everything was silent, "Ok, come on. Quickly."
"I feel like we shouldn't be here," Edward muttered as I hurried him away from Radiology as quickly as I could.
"We shouldn't," I hissed, "please hurry up."
We entered Brandon without running into anybody else and just as we arrived back at Edward's room my phone began to buzz.
"Aro, have you heard from Victoria?"
"I have. Where are you?"
"We're back in Brandon. What did you say to her?"
"I'm on my way over."
I set the phone down and pinched the bridge of my nose, a habit I'd picked up from my father - it was often employed by both of us during conversations with mom.
Edward touched my arm, "ok?"
"Aro's coming over. The woman who saw us before, Victoria, she's bad news."
"In what way?"
"I'm not sure yet. Is it ok if I make a coffee?"
He insisted I sat and turned the kettle on himself, tipping a spoonful of coffee granules into two oversized mugs. Waiting for the water to boil he leant against the narrow surface that made up his kitchenette, the sleeves of his light grey shirt were rolled to the elbow and I found my eyes drawn to his forearms, strong and sinewed but slim. Jesus, Bella. I gave myself an inner eye-roll, annoyed at myself for being so weak and pathetic, Edward Cullen was just a man. An incredibly attractive man with an inexplicable ability to read minds, but still just a man and my heart really had no right to be flip-flopping at the sight of his arms.
"Aro's here," Edward stated, startling me back to sensible reality and, of course, moments later I heard footsteps announcing my boss' arrival.
He was barely in the room before he started speaking.
"How much did she see Bella?"
"Should I…?" Edward nodded towards the door.
"No, you may as well be involved," Aro snapped.
It wasn't often that Aro was anything less than absolutely serene and so his agitation bothered me.
"Here's the situation," he grabbed my coffee and threw it back without a second thought. Edward nudged his own mug towards me. I could swear he was doing it...distracting me...on purpose.
"Victoria was extremely upset when she called me. Understandably so. I think I've reassured her for now but, as you may or not be aware Bella, she is very close," he gave me a meaningful look, "with Caius' son, James."
"I wasn't aware, no."
"It may not be an issue, I feel confident that I've defused the situation for the time being. However, I'm worried about something like this happening again, we can't keep Edward hidden in plain sight forever."
"I need to go home?" Edward's mouth mashed into a hard line.
"Perhaps, yes. I'm going to discuss it with Carlisle over dinner this evening. In the meantime Bella do you have the scans?"
I handed him the hard drive and the slightly crumpled print-outs which he snatched before breezing out of the room just as quickly as he had arrived.
"He wants me out of here," Edward sighed.
"I don't think that was quite what he meant," I absentmindedly leant over and gave his clenched fist a squeeze. His skin felt like ice and the shock reminded me that I was behaving inappropriately.
With eyebrows raised he scoffed at me, "mind reader Bella, remember?"
I stayed absolutely silent while Edward repeated Aro's thoughts out loud. He was worried about Edward's abilities getting back to Caius and Marcus, with Caius's love of the limelight and Marcus's passion for profit Aro felt that his secret subject would be at risk of exploitation. He was worried about the future of his beloved research centre were his partners to find out that he'd kept such a potentially valuable asset hidden from them. And, as I was already too well aware, we had broken just about a million ethical and legal codes by keeping our research off the books.
"He kept thinking about James too, the guy he mentioned? But it seemed as though he was trying to keep that thought away from me."
I didn't know a great deal about James. On the brief few occasions our paths had crossed he had seemed, predictably enough for the fruit of Caius's loins, kind of sleazy and I knew that unlike his father James was lazy, living off his Caius's fortune whilst making a half-hearted attempt at a career in motorcycle racing.
"Weird. Maybe Aro's right, maybe it'd be safer all round if you stayed at home. We could bring you in out of hours if we need to."
"I guess," his reluctance was apparent and I was again struck by his apparent dislike of his family, "I know it sounds silly but I've quite liked being here."
"Oh the novelty would soon wear off. Residential subjects quite often enjoy it at first but the cabin fever soon kicks in...and the staff constantly checking in can get pretty annoying."
"I don't think I'd mind the staff visits..." he trailed off, looking intently at me. I lowered my eyes, blushing hotly. Obviously he was just being friendly but coupled with the intensity of his stare the words sent my imagination off on a wild flight of fantasy; inappropriate, unprofessional fantasy.
"Why don't you want to go home?" My voice was just an octave too high.
"I didn't say that I didn't want to go home."
"You didn't have to," when did I get so bold? This was the point at which I should've excused myself and gone back to my day job. But here I was with a sudden obsessive need to know every detail of a man I'd known for barely twenty four hours.
"It's not very easy living with Dad and Esme. Dad treats me like a science experiment and she thinks I'm one of her charity cases. Plus my sister and her boyfriend are here right now. He's great but she's…" he searched for the right word, "tricky."
"Is there somewhere else you can go?"
"I could find my own place but that'll take time. I don't think Dad would like it much either."
"He's worried about you, I could tell."
"I know. That's why he asked for Aro's help, he wants to find some way to keep this from happening, he's only too aware of how hard it can be for me. He tries to keep his mind on other things but he just can't do it all the time and when he does think about what's going on with me I can get pretty infuriated. I guess it's as difficult for him to be around me as it is for me to be there."
I wracked my brains for a solution but nothing was forthcoming, "are there friends you could stay with? At least for now."
"I guess there's my best friend. He's a great guy but…"
I stopped him with another electrocuting touch to his hand, "will it do for now? Would he be ok with you staying?"
"He'd think it was a great idea but I don't know how long I could cope with his thoughts for."
"Call him. We can think of another solution if we need to but right now I think we need to get you out of here sooner rather than later."
He gave me a questioning look.
"Look Edward, I don't know what it is but I just feel like something bad could happen if we don't do something. If Aro's as worried as you say his then I really think we should be too."
He made the call.